Israeli Tennis Team Gets Fined for Yom Kippur

Like Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax before them, the Israeli national tennis team will not be engaging in competition on Judaism’s holiest day. For this decision, the team is being fined by the International Tennis Federation.

The Belgian Tennis Association turned down Israel’s request to postpone the game, but the International Tennis Federation, which sponsors the Davis Cup, intervened and changed the date of the match to September 15, but ordered the Israeli national team to pay the Belgian team for the inconvenience of adding a day to the tournament, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

The cost to the non-profit Israel Tennis Association? $13,000.

It’s very strange and disheartening to see this kind of thing happen in 2013. But with any luck, the Israeli team, centered by their atonement, will be make the Belgians pay on the tennis court.